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24.10.06

BC Ferries misses the boat...again!

From: dave olsen <bike@"@resist.ca>

British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. (a.k.a. BC Ferries) recently announced a $28 million dollar "upgrade" to four loading bays at Horseshoe Bay (near West Vancouver) and Departure Bay (near Nanaimo). This followed an announcement that they were having three new giant car- and truck-carrying ferries made in Germany (which will NOT create work for the very people that BC Ferries purports to serve). In total, this corporation plans to spend $200 million on ramps and bays and $2.5 billion on boats -- bays and boats built for cars and trucks, nowhere near where the majority of people live or work.

Meanwhile, Washington State Ferries have been operating ferries out of downtown Seattle for decades. Their walk-on and bicycle passengers can work, school, play, or shop downtown knowing that they can get home without the hassle of a bus or the cost of a car. Conversely, since the majority of mainlanders live near downtown Seattle, they can - without a car or bus - get out of town by foot or bike. Nothing radical here, and it all works just fine.

Meanwhile, BC Ferries is still wholly owned by BC taxpayers but thanks to Gordon Campbell, it is no longer accountable to the people it is owned by and serves. I assume this is the excuse that this corporation would use to explain why there has been no public process regarding the huge hole that it is about to dig.

Now, I'm not saying let's get rid of the car ferries. No, not yet. People have rightly said that they are a vital part of the highway system. People who drive depend on them. This is important, of course. But let them keep using the recently overhauled ferries on the Horseshoe Bay/Departure Bay route. They'll would be fine for another decade or two, at least.

What I'm saying is wake up and smell the half-cafe, double decafe latte (with a spritz of lemon) and spend a fraction of this money on people, not cars and trucks. Harbourlynx, the fast ferry that carried foot passengers and bikes from downtown Vancouver to downtown Nanaimo proved again that there is a growing number of people that want to drive to get to Vancouver Island and beyond. Not to mention, live on Vancouver Island and get to the big smoke without using a car. In fact, every holiday weekend BC Ferries sees it for themselves, if they would only look. On a service that is at best painful, and more often horrendous, to access for non-motorized passengers, it sells out the walk-on tickets for every sailing. It's long past time for faster, smarter, passenger- and bike-only ferries to Nanaimo, Victoria, and the Gulf Islands.

Actually, Victoria already has a passenger-only service from a major west coast city: Seattle. But not from Vancouver. Europe, New York, Latin America, Asia, the list is too lengthy to even begin to list the number of passenger-only ferries that serve major cities in the world. What do we have in Vancouver? The Seabus. That's it (but I can hardly wait for Harbourlynx to start again at the end of the year!!).

Meanwhile, Translink and BC Ferries have both shown no interest in making it easy for people who don't drive to use this ferry. When I sent an email to BC Ferries about the fact that at most 4 bikes can get to their sailings, I didn't even receive an acknowledgement that my email was received. I'm sending this one to the same public relations email address; we'll see if a response is forthcoming this time.

Translink, to their credit, has one employee who has a job description that provides some time to reply to bicycle-related emails. I was told that my email raised some valid points and that they would see what they could do. Six months later, no changes or additions have been made, even during the peak of the summer season. On Thanksgiving Day, 4 packed Express buses took most of the people who walked off the 5pm sailing, but most of the bikes rode without the bus because Translink's schedule gave no indication of extra service and it was faster and more comfortable to ride for 90 minutes than wait and get crammed into their sardine can/bus.

Meanwhile, work on the new ramps and ferries has begun. At a cost over 100 times of what it would have cost to buy and double the capacity of the high-speed passenger service from downtown to downtown.

And just what are we going to do with giant car-carrying ferries when the oil runs out or just gets too expensive to use so frivolously? Maybe we'll sell them back to the manufacturer again for less than the cost of the materials to make them, just like the last time BC Ferries had boats built. That will ease our tax burden, won't it?

Gordon Campbell and his Liberal Party, with 23%of the eligible vote in the last election, have gone on a spending spree that is making even Wacky Bennett turn green with jealousy in his grave. No public process has approved these ferries and ramps. No public process has approved the twinning of the Port Mann bridge and the rest of the multi-billion $ Gateway project. Lies were told (e.g., it'll be a tunnel, not cut and cover) to get the $2+ billion RAV a.k.a. Canada Line barely approved. And more blatant lies were spoken (e.g., all cost overruns will be covered by the Provincial Government) to get a slim majority of referendum voters in Vancouver (but only 14% of eligible voters) to "approve" the Olympics, which are doubling in cost almost every year (and we still have 3+ years to go!).

So far, that's about $10 billion for 4 rich boy toys that I won't use. In stark contrast, the cost of surface light rail from downtown to the airport, the cost of passenger-only boats and ramps to Vancouver Island from downtown Vancouver, and the cost of doubling the capacity of the Port Mann with HOV lanes (i.e., with no paving at all) is about 1/100 of what we are already on the line for (I've consciously omitted the 2010 corporate orgy, which is still an option for all of us). These are things that I and a growing number of us would and want to use. They could even pay their friends to build them.

Must be nice to be able to funnel so much of our money to their friends. Probably very close buddies with many of them, by now. I'm guessing they haven't imagined a world where people, like me and you, simply stop paying for their fun and friendships. But I can. Can you? --

Take care and if you can't take the lane, take the bus! dave

By regularly riding through red lights and stop signs (after yielding to make sure it's safe for all), we can encourage the powers-that-be to modernize their rules (e.g., in Idaho)...we are NOT one-tonne-killing-machines!

If you ever wonder, it is EVERY month. Also there is the midnight mass every 2 weeks and then other various rides. At this point Vancouver CM is so big that is will be on the last friday of the month no matter if nobody announces it or talks about it on the internet. And if that were to change, you would hear about it. So just assume it is on because for a while the Vancouver CM webpage will be out of service.

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